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Kira’s Birthday Party 2015
James helped one of his friends celebrate their 14th birthday today and had a blast. The event was at a hall in Wyandotte and James participated in several of the activities including making decorations and making cookies. Earlier James said Kira liked cats so all his gifts had a cat theme to them and he was right on the money. With the event so close to Christmas (James dad knows much about having a birthday close to Christmas) the party had a Christmas theme to it with a Grinch cake, gifts for the kids, and Christmas songs which made the party that much more special. Happy Birthday Kira and thanks for the invite.
Dads Birthday 2015
For the last few years Dad’s birthday has been celebrated on the day after Halloween, however Dad still gets other gifts and surprises on his birthday and this year was no different as Dad got surprised on his actual birthday. A very busy Holiday season this year and Dad’s birthday also provided the excuse for having chocolate cake and ice cream during the holiday season. Happy Birthday Dad and many many more!!!
Santa’s Magical Forest 2015
Once again James got to meet up with friends from his summer VIP camp and enjoyed the animatronics at Taylors Heritage Park Activity Building. The Magic Forest is every weekend from Nov 28th through December 22nd and admission is only $3 (all proceeds benefit Fish and Loaves Community Food Pantry). Many of the animatronics are from the old Hudson display in downtown Detroit and others were donated by collectors and such. Of course Santa was there which made the visit complete.
Thanksgiving 2015
Great weather for Thanksgiving this year, and a big win for the Lions as they slaughtered the Philadelphia Eagles 45-14. What makes the Lion wins so good this year is that a new Papa John Pizza opened (in the old dairy queen on Telegraph and Colgate) and when you use the code Lions50 (you have to order it online to get the discount) you get your entire purchase half off the next day. So while we certainly ate well on Thursday we also were treated to a feast on Friday thanks to the Lions and Papa Johns. Because the weather was so good we were able to get most the Christmas decorations up without having to get too cold. In the past we have had blizzards and snowfalls but fortunately that wasn’t the case this year. Hopefully this will be the forerunner to a warmer winter than we have had in the past couple years as we have had some brutal winters lately. Regardless, this Thanksgiving we had the windows open, got the decorations up, and a great time was had by all.
First Snowfall of the Season on Big Football Saturday 2015
A great day for football as Michigan beat Penn State (at Penn State) and Michigan State beat Ohio State (at Ohio State). Next week the opponents switch and MSU will play Penn State (at home) and Michigan will play Ohio State (at home). If MSU wins they are the Big Ten East Champs but if they lose the winner of the Michigan/Ohio game will be Champs. Pretty much the whole day it was raining and snowing and the next morning we were left with a pretty nice site with everything having a white outline to it as only Mother Nature can do. The only concern is the weight on some of the power lines but so far the lines have been holding up pretty well. These pics were taken the next morning.
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After Halloween Sale 2015
This was a strange year for after Halloween specials because Nov 1st was a Sunday and we really did not know what to expect. For the second year in a row James was with us for the shopping and having more people is always helpful (Mom used to do this all by herself in the past). What we found was not as many great sales – Halloween City and Target only offered 30% off – but you could still find them if you looked (Michaels 80% sale was awesome). Spirit, Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart were all at 50% off so its still the normal percentage discount. Another bit of a surprise was the Christmas Tree Shop and Home Depot were 50% off before Halloween so it could be said Nov 1st no longer has exclusive rights on the Halloween sales. Regardless we did very well and declared Michaels this years winner (CVS was last year with 90% off). Some of the items were not perfect but all are quite fixable, most just needing new batteries or a wire soldered here and there. Once again, today was when Dad got his Christmas gifts which makes this extra special for me.
Trick or Treat 2015
James dressed up as Luigi this year, staying with the Mario Brother theme. James set a new record by trick or treating all the way to Academy (the previous record was Grindley which is one block closer. James favorite candy was nerd candy and sometimes Dad could hear him asking “Do you have any nerds?” as he trick or treated.
Mom handed out candy and dressed up as a pizza this year. Probably an average crowd showed up trick or treating due to the light rain which was more of an irritant than anything else.
Halloween at Manuels Taco Hut 2015
Our tradition at Manuels Taco Hut continues as we at their Halloween day for lunch. The place opened at 1pm and their was a line outside well before it opened. Luckily we made it in the first seating so we did not have to wait for people to finish. We noticed a couple new things including a clown mirror, a talking girl corpse, and a un-living portrait that actually used the same program that we use, only they have it in a much larger frames. James ordered chicken nuggets and french fries while Mom and Dad got their usual burrito meal.
One thing that we noticed was missing was the singing pirate in the treasure chest, wonder if they are just rotating their props or if something happened to him? When we left it had just begun to sprinkle so it looks like we will have a wet Halloween for the 3rd year in a row.
Manuel’s Taco Hut is located on Ecorse Road in Taylor MI (just East of Pelham Road) and is open year round.
Halloween at Greenfield Village 2015
James was given 3 passes to Greenfield Village by one of his friends family (Thanks Ben’s Dad) and when we had a choice of wasting another Sunday on the Lions or visiting Greenfield Village we took the obvious choice. We were hoping to go on Saturday but because of the rain we postponed it till Sunday. James had lots of fun as usual and acted as our tour guide on this visit and used the map he was given to navigate us through the village. Pumpkins were everywhere and it was the perfect combination of Fall, Halloween, and History by the people of Greenfield Village and Ford Motor (James Grandad and Great Grand Dad both retired from Fords). In fact, we even saw Ben’s Dad there driving a horse drawn carriage. Mom’s favorite part was the Robert Frost house while James enjoyed the graveyard. Dad’s favorite was the creepy little forest with the spiders in the tree.
Everytime we go to the village or the museum here we have a great time, why we don’t go more often I will never know.
Best Decorated Halloween Homes 2015
We do this every few years and take pics of some of our favorite Halloween homes. All of these are a few blocks from James and all are unique in one way or another. There are many many more decorated homes but we only have space to put up a few of our favorites. These homes look very good in the daylight so you have to assume they look great at night. The neighborhood we live in has always been very active in decorating for every Holiday, guess we are just lucky. One of our favorites is the skeleton tree where all the skeletons are made out of gallon milk jugs.
